Round Robin Challenge: Signs Of Spring

"Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn."

- Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in "Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You."

Signs of Spring. They are everywhere. From stuffed bunnies and colored eggs waiting to be added to easter baskets, to the beautiful wildflowers you can see blooming on the side of a country road. Signs of Spring might also me heard in the peeps of the tiny birds in the nest, and the flutter of a group of butterflies all flapping their wings at once. I appreciate the season of spring more now then I once did. I love the colors, and the sounds. I love that there is still just enough of a chill in the air, that I am able to still wear my favorite sweaters that I miss so much in the summertime. I love long naps on a spring afternoon, with Elvis curled up next to me. I love that he walks in my garden, to make sure all the flowers are in place. He loves roses, and he stops and sniffs each one, staying at the spiciest ones the longest. He loves the stock almost as much!

I have moved all my flowers up next to the storage room on the side of the yard, because we are planning to put in some dwarf fruit trees in the spot where last year's flower bed was. We picked out a couple dwarf fruit trees to plant for my landlord, and for Darryl. The trees will make the yard all the more special. We will keep them in the containers for at least a year, so I might plant a few sunflowers in that space so that we will have some color there for autumn. I will share more about that later, but for now the focus is spring. The following are some photos from last spring, and the plants I am working on for this year.

Quince Blossom

Peach Blossom

My favorite planting dirt... worm free. :)

Mini Roses

Can you believe the purple stock from last year is still blooming?

Nemesia

This challenge was suggested by Nan, author of the blog, Life Is Like A Lunchbox. Be sure to drop by her place and have a look at her entry. Afterwards, drop by the other participating Robins and see their creativity as well. We are blessed with some awesome photographers, and I look forward to these challenges each time with great anticipation. All our Robins are amazing artists. If you enjoy beauty, just follow the links below. Better yet, if you want to join in, you are more then welcome. The challenges are open to everyone on the Internet with a place to post their entries. If you haven't played with us before, just pay a visit to the Round Robin Challenges blog, and read the details. Come on, you know you want to!

Linking List :)

Nan... Life is Like A Lunchbox
POSTED!

Steven... (sometimes photoblog)
POSTED!

Carly... Ellipsis
POSTED!

Karen... Outpost Mavarin
POSTED!

Lisa... Lisa's Chaos
POSTED!

**Gattina... (See RR Sidebar for the Link)


Suzanne R... Living... Suzanne R's Life
POSTED!

Janet... Fond of Photography
POSTED!

Kiva... Eclectic Granny

POSTED!
Sandra... Strong Chemistry


Martha... Perception
POSTED!

Jan... The Prytz Family
POSTED!

Monica... Family Affair Photography ** Welcome Back**
POSTED!

Momma... Sandcastle Momma

POSTED!
Kim... Nekked Lizards

POSTED!

Jill... Letting Crazy Take A Spin

POSTED!

Chrissie... Chriseas Corner

POSTED!

Celeste... Ragracers

POSTED!

Vicki... Maracas

POSTED!

Whammy... The Ellis Family Cincinnati
POSTED!

Jennifer Robin... Robins Woods
POSTED!

-OndineMonet

New Monday Photo Shoot: Being Green

"Sometimes our fate resembles a fruit tree in winter. Who would think that those branches would turn green again and blossom, but we hope it, we know it."

-Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

New Monday Photo Shoot #12: In honor of St. Patrick's Day, and in anticipation of spring, show us something green. If you want to photograph something that really is green, fine. If you want to photograph something that's definitely not green, and then edit it to look green, that's even better!

-Karen Funk Blocher, of the blog, Outpost Mavarin

I thought this picture might fit the the theme of things nicely. This is a Green Ice rose, and it is one of my very favorite roses to grow. Some have a deeper green outer petal all around, and a softer pink inside. Some are double blossoms, so it has a real porcelain appearance, but don't let it's delicate appearance fool you, it is a very hearty rose, with a soft rose scent that is amazingly easy to grow. I love putting these roses on the table as a decoration for St. Patrick's Day, but doesn't it just say, "Welcome to Spring" as well? :)

-OndineMonet
"Green Ice Rose"
Berkeley, California
March 19th, 2008
Afternoon

No News Is...

"It is not necessary to change, survival is not mandatory."

-W. Edwards Dening

Well, I bet you thought I dropped off the planet. Well no, not quite, but I think I came close a couple times. LOL. They say things come in threes, and you know what? I think it might be true! Last week, my lovely EMachine computer died a slow, horrible, painful death. Sigh. It was probably about time, it was over 3 years old, and I had really put it through it's paces. We had all too many programs installed, including games and all their expansion packs, and I left it on almost constantly, because waiting for it to power up in the morning took a long time, and for some reason, since I jumped onto the Internet in 2002, my tolerance for waiting is almost non-existent. LOL. Have you noticed a change in your patience since you jumped on the net, or is it just me?

Anyway, I was all set to resume regular posting here at Ellipsis, when my computer, Megan, sighed her last sigh. It was sad, but reluctantly I, I mean we, moved on. We shopped around all last weekend, and finally found our new computer friend at Best Buy in Dublin, California. It is a H.P. Desktop, and it comes loaded with lots of nifty features that appeal to the gamer in Alan, and the photo nut in me. It has a lovely 19-in Flat screen LCD Monitor, which I am completely in love with, and it has the cool nifty tool of Light Scribe, for making wonderfully full color Cd's. I love making mixed Cd's for listening to in the car, and with this tool I can now make them look good as well. Fun, fun, fun. The computer also comes with Windows Vista program, which is of course, nothing like XP.

It is taking me a long time to get used to it, but I am enjoying having something new to challenge me. :) I am thinking about buying, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Windows Vista," because I love the Idiot's Guides series of books. Every time I have felt completely lost over something, those guides have been there to show me the way. Nice, plain, easy to read instructions on everything from YOGA, to chewing gum while walking. LOL. Well, actually, I don't really know if they offer that last one, but wouldn't that be a great idea for a new Idiot's Guide? LOL. Maybe I should write that one. Hmmmm...

Anyway. It has been a rough couple months, and my diabetic numbers have been reflecting that. One day last week, my after lunch reading was well over 250. That is an extreme rarity for me, and the weird part was that I hadn't had anything extraordinary for lunch. I had Stouffer's Lean Cuisine Meatloaf meal. My usual reading after eating that has been 122. So, to see my glucose reading be over 250, signaled to me that all the stress has been getting to me... big time. I have all the tools I need to make the adjustments, I just have to be more diligent about things, such as getting the right kind of rest, and not paying too much attention to the evening news, and you know who! LOL.

Ok, so, that's where I have been the last week or so. I am definitely back to my normal schedule now. I hope you are all still with me, but if you aren't that's ok too, someone new will come along, and I will still be right over here running my big FemiNazi, liberal, girly-girl mouth, and spouting my opinion whether it is asked for or not. Lord, am I charming or what? LOL.

-OndineMonet
"No News"
Berkeley, California
March 19th, 2008
Afternoon